SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM (2 sets); SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF LOVE

This is the beginning of a journey in both understanding and action.

I am beginning to probe the teachings of Sophia (Hokhmah, Lady Wisdom) in Proverbs 9:1-12, and its preceding sections (Proverbs 8:12-21 and Proverbs 8:22-36). Jesus teaches on Sophia in Luke 7:33-35 and Luke 11:49-50). Elizabeth Schussler-Fiorenza points to a biblical "Sophia Theology" in these and other verses, especially: Phil 2.6-11; 1 Tim 3:16; Colossians 1:15-20; Ephesians 2:14-16; Hebrews 1:3; 1 Peter 3:18, 22; John 1:1-14.

The Bible describes Sophia/Hokhmah as co-existent with God in many places, including Proverbs 3:19 and 8:22-29.

Marcus Borg writes: "...Paul spoke of Jesus as the Sophia of and from God....For early Christianity, Jesus was the Son of the Father and the incarnation of Sophia, the child of the intimate Abba, and the child of Sophia." (_Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time_ 1994: 106, 109)

In Proverbs 9:1 Lady Wisdom (Sophia, Hokhmah) declares that She "has sent out her maidens and cries upon the highest places of the city."

I have inferred two lists of the seven pillars of wisdom.
First, I take seven virtues from the text of Proverbs 9:1-12. Second, given that Hokhmah (Sophia, Lady Wisdom) says in the past tense, that she _has_ established her seven pillars, I develop a list from the previous chapter. (Proverbs 8:12-8:20)

Taken literally I interpret that She is teaching these themes.

1. Acceptance... (Proverbs 9:4)
2. Hospitality... (Proverbs 9:5)
3. forsaking the foolish (i.e., establishing serenity)...(Proverbs 9:6)
4. restraint and good manners (serene comportment)... (Proverbs 9:7-8)
5. understanding... (Proverbs 9:8-9)
6. teaching, and... Proverbs 9:9)
7. fear of the Lord (awe, reverence, surrender, and mystical transcendence)
...(Proverbs 9:10)

These are the seven pillars that uphold your home in this world and the next.

As verse 11 says, by Lady Wisdom, and by heeding her wisdom,
"your days shall be multiplied, and the years of your life shall be increased."

Since Hokhmah says She _has_ established her pillars, I consider these possibilities also:

1. prudence...(Proverbs 8:12)
2. counsel (transmitted & shared wisdom & understanding) ... (8:14)
3. strength (8:14)
4. justice (8:15)
5. love (8:17,21)
6. prosperity (8:18-19,21)
7. righteousness (8:20)

Certainly these are also perfect pillars to hold up our homes. God willing, I would like to explore this question, "What are the Seven Pillars of Wisdom?" more comprehensively. What are your thoughts on this question?

~~~~~~~

The following text is The Seven Principles of Love
by Pir Zia Inayat Khan.

Inspired by the Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Proverbs 9:1),
it is at the heart of The Seven Pillars School of Thought.
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom House is
interdisciplinary and inter-spiritual dialogue project
initiated by Pir Zia Inayat Khan:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13884632885
info@sevenpillarshouse.org
www.sevenpillarshouse.org

SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF LOVE

The name Seven Pillars derives from Proverbs 9.1:
“Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her seven pillars.”
In our case, the pillars serve as an allusion to the Seven Principles of Love,
and their expression and realization in the world:

1. The Universe is a phenomenon of love, and its ripest fruit is the awakened heart.

2. The heart awakens in the act of rising up toward, attaining, and ultimately rising beyond, the beauty it holds as its highest ideal.

3. The pure essence of every world faith is an ennobling ideal. The sum of these ideals is the spiritual heritage of the contemporary human heart.

4. The awakening heart experiences itself, and accordingly stimulates in others, love, harmony, and beauty.

5. Love is the progressive experiential realization of the ontological unity underlying the multiplicity and diversity of manifestation.

6. Harmony is the sympathetic resonance and fellowship that flows naturally from the realization of unity in multiplicity.

7. Beauty is the elusive and evolving object of adoration and aspiration that guides hearts, individually and collectively, in their awakening: an endless pursuit.

~~~

from www.sevenpillarshouse.org/


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H. TALAT HALMAN, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Religion
Central Michigan University
301S Anspach
Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859

603 N. University St.
Mt Pleasant, MI 48858

www.halmantra.com/

http://cosmicherosim.blogspot.com/
http://educareshares.blogspot.com/
http://artofuniowithreality.blogspot.com/
http://emeraldsunlight.blogspot.com/
http://emeraldlight.magnify.net/
http://artofunion.magnify.net/
http:hermeticaring.blogspot.com/
http://zumurrudiyya.blogspot.com/
http://pathofishq.blogspot.com/
http://sufiflashes.blogspot.com/
http://emeraldbuddhahood.blogspot.com/

In generosity and helping others be like a river.
In compassion and grace be like the sun.
In concealing others' faults be like the night.
In anger and fury be like the dead.
In modesty and humility be like earth.
In tolerance be like the sea.
Either appear as you are or be as you look.
--Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi